Paper Round: Manchester United chase £60m Real Madrid star James Rodriguez

West Ham have registered interest in signing Wayne Rooney from Manchester United, according to the Sunday Express. The move is coming from above Slaven Bilic, who has only three games to save his career. Instead, the club hierarchy want to sign Rooney in order to mark their move to the London Stadium and to bring frustrated fans on board. They will offer him wages of £150,000 a week.

Paper Round's view: Signing Rooney for West Ham is a much bigger risk than him being bought by a Chinese club, even if it's on reduced wages. There is nothing in the last three years which suggests that Rooney can cope with the rigours of Premier League football any more. If you are going to commit to such huge wages then it makes much more sense to do it for a player on the up, not one who considered semi-retirement just a month ago.

With Harry Kane injured, and as Jamie Vardy picked up a knock against Germany in Dortmund, 34-year-old Jermain Defoe will return to England duty to start for Gareth Southgate against Lithuania this evening. Defoe has continued to score regularly for Sunderland, and against a team as limited as Lithuania, England should not suffer too much without either Kane or Vardy.

Paper Round's view: Last night, Olivier Giroud helped France against Luxembourg by being on hand to convert simple chances. It meant that despite Luxembourg sitting back for almost all of the match, and despite France's poor performance, they could scrape by nonetheless. England certainly need the same as they field a weakened team and lack confidence under pressure.

Rooney is not out of contention to lead England yet, says manager Gareth Southgate. Parallels were drawn between Rooney and Lukas Podolski's last match, but Southgate says he is still willing to consider him for international duty, even if he doesn't play much. “I don’t understand why there has been this talk of a tribute match, like Lukas Podolski had for Germany against us last Wednesday. And there was no problem about missing a team meeting last week to have treatment. He wasn’t the only one – there were others like Harry Kane and Danny Rose. The ideal scenario is to have players who are playing regularly for their clubs but I’ve got to be open-minded."

Paper Round's view: Southgate can hardly announce the end of Rooney's career at a press conference before an international qualifier. He has made it plain what is required as his preference - his choice will favour those who play regularly. However, given Rooney will move from Old Trafford this summer, it seems sensible to give him a chance to rediscover his form before dropping him from the side. Jose Mourinho has shown how to show Rooney the exit - there's no need to rush anything.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho wants to bring Real Madrid forward James Rodriguez to Old Trafford this summer. The Manchester Evening News has picked up a story from Don Balon, which says the 25-year-old Rodriguez has suffered for game time under Zinedine Zidane. However, he's not just wanted by United, who will face competition from PSG and Bayern Munich.

Paper Round's view: If Mourinho thinks that he can get something out of Rodriguez, then the side can certainly be adjusted to fit him in. He could replace Anthony Martial, Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford or perhaps Ander Herrera, or even Michael Carrick. If United lose Zlatan Ibrahimovic, there's a requirement for another star in attack, but really it doesn't matter - if a player this good is available and you can afford him, you might as well buy first and then work it out.